South Tahoe sweeps North Tahoe

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The Vikings continued to cruise through the second half of the season with a sweep against North Tahoe at home Tuesday.

In their final meeting of the season against the Lakers, the Vikings set a blistering pace for a 72-39 boys' win and a 50-34 girls' win.

The South Tahoe boys set the pace in the first quarter, outscoring the Lakers 15-4. North Tahoe (8-12, 2-5) recovered to outscore the Vikings 17-12 in the second quarter, which shaved the lead to 27-21 by the half.

But South Tahoe (11-9, 5-1) took complete control after the break, outscoring the Lakers 22-4 in the third quarter to pull away.

"We did a great job until halftime. The second half we just went cold," said North Tahoe coach Frank Wright.

John Espiritu led the Vikings with 18 points in 17 minutes of playing time, and went 3-for-5 on 3-point attempts.

Cale Backinger had 15 points. Brandon Cramer had 10, and John Cefalu had eight. Kyante Wilson led the Vikings with seven rebounds.

The lady Vikings took an early lead and continued to inch ahead of North Tahoe (8-10, 2-5) through the game. South Tahoe (10-10, 5-1) had a 12-8 lead after the first quarter, 26-18 at the half and 35-27 at the end of three quarters.

Brooke King scored 12 points to lead the Vikings, but the girls spread the points around. Mel Grady had 10 points and four rebounds. Hannah Neiger had nine rebounds to go with her 10 points. Grace Bronken had seven rebounds. Bailey David had six rebounds. Alisa Caro had six points and two rebounds.

"Everyone saw a lot of action in the North Tahoe game," girls coach Mike Neiger said. "Mel hit some nice outside shots, and we had another balanced attack."

UP NEXT: South Tahoe will travel to Incline on Friday as regular season play winds down. The girls play Incline (11-12, 3-3) at 6 p.m. The boys take on the Highlanders (10-11, 2-4) at 7 p.m. The Vikings will wrap up regular season play next week with home games against Truckee on Feb. 5, Sparks on Feb. 8, and an away game at Whittell on Saturday, Feb. 9.